UK journalist says Malaysian jail sentence is ‘revenge’ for bringing down prime minister

Clare Rewcastle Brown tells Maroosha Muzaffar she feels like she is living in a ‘scary thriller’ after her investigative reporting on one of Malaysia’s biggest financial scandals took down a government, landed a prime minister in jail and shook the global financial world

Clare Rewcastle Brown (Rex Features)

British journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown was preparing for her work day as usual when her phone started lighting up with WhatsApp messages. “Oh my goodness, I am so sorry”, read one text.

The 64-year-old investigative journalist was as shocked as anyone to read that she had been sentenced in absentia to two years in prison by a Malaysian court, sparking a flurry of messages of support from her alarmed friends, colleagues and family. She was convicted of defaming the country’s former queen, Sultanah Nur Zahirah, in her book The Sarawak Report – The Inside Story of the 1MDB Exposé.

Once online, she found out about the ruling in local Malay news reports. She used Google’s translation services to figure out what was happening. “It was a surprise,” she tells The Independent. “No one told me there was going to be a trial.